Most of the recount is finished, and the vote total of has only fluctuated by a few votes. Unless Ortiz has a few magic ballot boxes up his sleeve in Nueces County, Republican Blake Farenthold is the new U.S. Congressman for Texas’ 27th Congressional District.
Fat Lady Starts Clearing Her Throat for Solomon Ortiz
November 17th, 2010Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead Still In Charge
November 17th, 2010
—Democrats in the House of Representatives voted 150-43 Wednesday to keep House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as their leader in the new Congress, a number of lawmakers said as they emerged from the caucus meeting.
I wonder what revenge she will extract against those members who suggested that maybe offering a new job to the pilot of the Hindenburg wasn’t such a good idea…
Republicans approve:
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
November 17th, 2010Or “Democratic House Members Held Hostage: Day 15” (Imagine dramatic Nightline opening theme music here.)
You might have noticed we had an election a couple of weeks ago. Democrats didn’t do so well. Especially in the House, where Democrats lost 60 61 62 seats and counting. The House lead by Nancy Pelosi. The Nancy Pelosi who forced ObamaCare through despite widespread public opposition, a huge contributing factor in the democrats’ electoral slaughter.
Given that, common sense would suggest that Pelosi step aside and not run for Minority Leader. But Nancy Pelosi has never been one to let common sense stand in her way.
The voices are growing louder asking for Pelosi to step down.
On the other hand, her hardcore liberal supporters are rallying around her: “Her talents are unique.” Well, yes. Not even Tom Foley managed to lose 60+ seats in 1994. That takes the special kind of high-handed, self-righteous, tone-deafness that Pelosi excels in.
Blue Dog Coalition member Heath Schuler is threatening to run against her. Then again, if House Democrats are picking their next quarterback, maybe they’ll want someone with a higher lifetime passing rating then 54.3%.
The Congressional Black caucus has decided that they may not want to be lead by Pelosi.
Pelosi says it’s not her fault:
The California Democrat attributes the loss of at least 60 seats to high unemployment and “$100 million of outside, unidentified funding.”
“Any party that cannot turn (9.5% unemployment) into political gains should hang up the gloves,” she said.
- Funny, I don’t remember Pelosi complaining about all that unverified money Obama was raking in circa 2008.
- As far as 9.5% unemployment goes, her answer seems to suggest that she had no part in keeping unemployment so high. That’s not the case.
But now Democrats seem poised to elect her to Minority Leader later today. Republicans are already licking their chops over 2012 attack ads…
Joe Walsh Wins in The Long Run. Life’s Been Good to Him So Far
November 17th, 2010Republican Joe Walsh wins over Democratic incumbent Melissa Bean by 291 votes. Now he’s gone from being an average ordinary guy to enjoying life in the fast lane as a U.S. Congressman. That brings the total of GOP pickups to 62.
Is you have any other Eagles-related puns, feel free to share them in the comments. (And yes, I know it’s not that Joe Walsh.)
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Symantic’s Extensive Analysis of the Stuxnet Worm
November 16th, 2010My hacking skills are pretty much limited to writing “Hello World” in Python on a good day, but even a cursory glance shows that Stuxnet is a very sophisticated beast indeed. Let’s hope it delivered a critical blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Charlie Rangel Found Guilty
November 16th, 2010Of 11 of the 13 counts against him by the House ethics committee.
And what will Rangel be sentenced to for tax evasion, rent control fraud, etc.? Most likely, a strongly worded letter. He’ll get to live on in the 112th congress as reminder of Nancy Pelosi’s “most ethical congress ever.”
And how badly did his ethics problems hurt him at the polls? He won his race against Michel Faulkner by 86% of the vote. Maybe if he had killed someone on live television, his poll numbers might have dipped into the 70s…
Houston Redlight Cameras Coming Down Monday
November 12th, 2010In the “old news is so exciting” department, Houston voters got rid of red light cameras in last week’s election. Well, voted them down, anyway. The usual red light sycophants were saying they couldn’t possibly shut them down until March, due to a 120 day notice contract with (yep, you guessed it) American Traffic Solutions, who you may remember from such hits as “We’re creating Astroturf PACs to keep us rolling in dough.”
(Here’s a hint: No city should set up red light cameras in the first place, since they create more accidents than they prevent, but if you do, how about adding a clause saying “Contract immediately void upon rejection by the voters?”)
However, this time the story has a happy ending: City Hall ordered the plug pulled on the cameras by 10 AM this coming Monday (November 15).
Every time voters get a chance to actually vote on the issue, red light cameras are defeated. Sadly, many local politicians still think its more important to line the city’s pockets (or maybe their own) than paying attention to the wishes of actual voters. Maybe with enough defeats like this, the whole red light camera scam will be pulled down for good.
I’d previously pointed out College Station voters getting rid of red light cameras.
This Week in Jihad
November 11th, 2010Another week, another roundup of the World of jihad:
- Arabs would evidently prefer to see a little Arab boy die rather than have his life saved by an Israeli ambulance
- Jihadists try to blow up airplanes by stuffing dogs with bombs. Killing the dogs in the process. Angries up the blood, it does.
- My congressman, Rep. John Carter, wonders why the Pentagon still has not acknowledged that “radical Islamic terrorism” was the cause of the Ft. Hood rampage. (At some point I should put up pics from Carter’s picnic. He got a lot of pictures with my dog…)
- The Turkish media seems happy to keep their own citizens in the dark about what really happened with the Peace and Happiness Flotilla earlier this year.
- Reza Aslan is one of those “moderate Muslim spokesman,” who, when you actually examine their words and deeds, turns out not to be so moderate after all…
- Pope: Hey, how about some religious freedom in Islamic countries? I wouldn’t hold your breath…
- Especially in Hamasistan, who have declared that they’re not going to let any of those filthy, stinking Shi’a into their country, much less Christians, Buddhists or (ha!) Jews. (Which, of course, won’t prevent them from taking money from the Shi’a theocracy in Tehran.)
- The latest group of racist, bigoted Americans to oppose the Ground Zero Mosque: Muslims.
- A Somalia sex-slave ring is operating out of: A.) Mogadishu, B.) Cairo, or C.) Minneapolis?
LinkSwarm for Thursday, November 11, 2010
November 11th, 2010Another LinkSwarm of sundry sundries:
- More reasons to be thankful Paul Kanjorksi is gone.
- “Much of what this Democratic Congress did, or tried to do, was like throwing Molotov cocktails at business.”
- Top Ten Upsets of the 2010 Election. (Warning: slide show.) Some of the surprises were the Democrats that didn’t lose (such as Harry Reid), but several (Ortiz, Oberstar, Wilson, Gene Taylor) were upsets I predicted.
- The RNCC has put up a page (with donations links) for the eight house races still up in the air.
- The question isn’t whether Blake Farenthold beat Solomon Ortiz, the question is whether the win is “outside the margin of ACORN.”
- Need an example of the above? Try this: “The Bean campaign approached the Cook County Clerk’s Office, requested and received a list of all outstanding absentee ballots with name, address, and phone numbers. As alarming as that was, they also asked for and were provided an exact image of a blank absentee ballot.”
- Study after study have shown Republicans are more generous than Democrats. This year’s election just proved that the same applies to the Texas congressional delegation. “The 20 Texas Republican incumbents, none of whom faced serious opposition, gave an average of $100,000 each to Republicans. Texas Democrats, meanwhile, provided relatively meager support for endangered Democratic incumbents. They averaged $26,000 in donations to other candidates in their party.”
- The Democrats have a Rust Belt problem: “The drop-off in Democratic support among older voters and white voters from the last midterm election is remarkable. In 2006 Democrats lost white voters by 4 points in House races, which are a fairly good indicator of party preference, and they tied among voters 65 and over. This year they lost whites by 23 points and lost older voters by 21 points.”
- “Many Dem Staffers on Capitol Hill Face Tough Job Market.” Perhaps they should check with IBM. I hear they’re working on a nanoscale violin construction program that might be appropriate for them…